‘We have to move.’ After 17 years, Downtown Boise breakfast restaurant to relocate

Addie’s has been serving breakfast in Old Boise since 2001. Facebook/ThisIsBoise.com

Addie’s has been serving breakfast in Old Boise since 2001. Facebook/ThisIsBoise.com

Addie’s restaurant owner Heidi Bauknecht first knew something was up last year. Between bites of home-cooked eggs and hashbrowns, customers began informing her about other businesses supposedly taking over her building.

“Our landlord’s been showing it at the night time,” she says.

Since 2001, Addie’s has been a Downtown Boise breakfast and lunch staple. But two weeks ago, Bauknecht purchased her own building — two miles away at 1221 W. Boise Ave.

Addie’s will keep slinging old-fashioned omelettes and forearm-size burritos for several more weeks at 501 W. Main St. — through the end of March, she hopes. But by spring, Addie’s will relocate to its new Boise Avenue spot.

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“We’re a month-to-month lease right now, after all this time,” she says. “We have to move. It’s not like it’s my idea. It’s something that presented itself. I either do it or I don’t do it.”

Despite the circumstances, Bauknecht says, the idea of operating near Boise State is exciting. Addie’s new space has been home to many restaurants over the years — most famously La Fiesta, Boise’s first Mexican food destination.

Leaving Downtown has potential benefits, too, Bauknecht says.

“We’ve lost a lot of customers just because of the parking and all of the construction,” she says. “I’m hoping to get most of them back and add more with Boise State — and the patio. Oh my gosh, the patio is awesome there.”

Bauknecht plans to apply for beer and wine licensing, finally satisfying the hungry (and hungover) diners asking for mimosas. She also plans to extend hours. In addition to breakfast and lunch, she wants Addie’s to offer dinner.

She hopes to create an evening menu focusing on Mexican food, she says, in honor of Hank and Marie James, who operated La Fiesta for more than three decades until they died, two days apart, in 2000.

“In tribute to Marie since she worked so hard at that,” Bauknecht says, “and she was so great at what she did.”

Before deciding to move, Bauknecht says she thought about calling it quits. But Addie’s customers make her want to forge ahead, she says.

“Now the kids that were little kids when they first started coming in, they’re bringing in their kids. I would miss that — would miss out on seeing them have their pancakes. It would really be kind of sad.

“I’m doing it for the good of Boise,” she adds with a laugh.

In the end, Bauknecht says, moving will be a relief.

“What’s been the most stressful has been hearing about other people moving in to the place I’ve had for 17 years,” she says. “I’ve felt a lot more relief knowing what I’m going to do versus letting somebody else tell me what I’m going to be doing.”

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